Edinburgh

NHS

26 July 2003
TECHNICIANS AT one of Britain's biggest PFI hospitals, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, walked out on Friday of last week. The workers, members of the Unison union, were furious after being told by their trust bosses that their jobs could be sold off to a private company.

Thousands fight to end poverty

21 June 2003
"IT'S ABOUT time the low paid stood up and gave the politicians and the fat cats a good shaking," says Annie, a striking nursery nurse from Edinburgh. She is one of thousands of workers across Britain who are fighting to end poverty pay and stop bosses treating them like second class citizens.

Nursery nurses: 'We're worth more'

07 June 2003
"THIS IS a battle for justice. We are demanding that we get proper treatment and are set free from low pay." So said Janet from Greengables nursery, who was one of the 1,000 striking nursery nurses protesting in Edinburgh on Thursday of last week.

Tens of thousands show we have not gone away

05 April 2003
TENS OF thousands of people took to the streets of Britain last Saturday as part of the Stop the War Coalition's day of action. "Over 15,000 marched in Edinburgh," says Mick Napier. "The mood was determined. Speaker after speaker called for the immediate end to the invasion. Susan Karim, an Iraqi, used information from her relatives inside Iraq to describe the horrors being visited on the heads of ordinary Iraqis by the invading American and British forces."

Anti-war protests sweep the world

23 March 2003
San Francisco, Rome, Buenos Aires, Vienna, London, Sydney, Dhaka, Brussels, Madrid, Athens, Seoul, Tokyo, Mexico City, Edinburgh... and hundreds more

Palestine debate

14 December 2002
NEARLY 200 people took part in a debate at Edinburgh University last week on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. It was organised by the student society People & Planet. John Chalcraft, an Edinburgh politics lecturer, and Chris Doyle, from CAABU (Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding), explained why Palestinians had rejected the "peace offers".

Porno: a return ticket from Irvine Welsh

19 October 2002
Ten years on, the characters from Trainspotting have returned, this time to make a porn movie. Irvine Welsh sets up a series of neatly timed coincidences to bring them back to Edinburgh along with a new character, the beautiful but bulimic student Nikki Fuller-Smith.

Lothian buses

05 October 2002
CONFUSION AND bitterness spread through the ranks of 1,300 bus drivers in the Edinburgh region on Friday of last week. The drivers, who work for the Lothian bus company, were set to begin an all-out strike that day against a new pay deal. Their TGWU union leaders called the strike off at the last minute on Thursday evening after they received a new offer from management.

Driven to go all out in Edinburgh

28 September 2002
AN INDEFINITE strike by bus drivers was set to begin in the Edinburgh region this week. Over 1,300 drivers are facing a hostile management that is determined to defeat the workforce.

Bus workers

21 September 2002
OVER 1,300 bus drivers in Edinburgh and the Lothians were poised to start an indefinite strike over pay this week. But a last minute offer halted the action.

Buses

14 September 2002
DRIVERS ON Edinburgh's main bus services have voted decisively for strikes over pay. Over 75 percent of drivers voted for action, despite a union recommendation to accept a 5 percent offer.

Transport from all over Britain

07 September 2002
CAMPAIGNERS in the Stop the War Coalition are uniting with local groups to get transport from across Britain to the 28 September demonstration. A 640-seat train is running through Glasgow and Edinburgh to the march. A further five coaches are booked from Edinburgh, and transport is organised from Greenock, Fife, Aberdeen and Dundee. In Runcorn, in the north west of England, and Bristol the postal workers' CWU union is running its own coaches to the demonstration. In Cardiff the CWU union has given £200 to help fund transport from the area. Around 100 coaches are booked from Birmingham. Around £10,000 has been raised to pay for billboard and newspaper adverts in the ru

The drama of conflict

24 August 2002
MANY HAVE feared that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has lost something of its cutting edge as it has grown ever larger. Yet, as this year's festival approached, we began hearing concerns about the number of shows with 11 September related themes. Most of the criticism was directed at the idea that comedians would make jokes about 9-11.

Galleries

13 July 2002
THE THREAT of strike action by 120 members of the PCS union at the National Galleries of Scotland has forced management to make an improved pay offer. The workers had introduced an overtime ban that shut all four Edinburgh galleries on Sundays.

Palestine

22 June 2002
SOME 100 activists took part in a conference in Edinburgh on Saturday on "Giving effective solidarity to the Palestinians". John McAllion, Labour MSP, opened the conference by insisting that unity of all campaigners for Palestine was essential.

A day of international solidarity and socialism

11 May 2002
EDINBURGH: 1,000 people marched for international solidarity and socialism through the streets of Edinburgh to a rally in Princes Street Gardens on Saturday. Palestinian flags flew among trade union and socialist banners as the chants rang out against privatisation and for freedom for Palestine.

Scottish Power: All out action to win victory

22 December 2001
Scottish Power workers struck for two days last week, and planned another two days action this week. The strike, involving 1,500 workers in North Wales, Merseyside and Scotland, has been totally solid. There have been big picket lines of up to 100 at a time in Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Postal workers

22 December 2001
Edinburgh

Janitors

08 December 2001
Janitors at schools and education centres in Edinburgh planned to strike on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week over pay. The city council is refusing to pay a nationally agreed irregular hours payment of £20 a week. The money is to compensate workers for their 6am to 6pm days. Pat Rafferty, TGWU official, said, "We have been trying to resolve this issue since May 1999. We offered to move to 7.30am start times but the council rejected this."

Council round-up

01 December 2001
Caretakes in Edinburgh are set to take strike action to try to win more money for working long hours. Some 100 caretakers, members of the UNISON union, have agreed to boycott work for three days next week and another three days the following week. Some 90.3 percent voted for strikes in an official ballot.